An elderly woman was killed and two others, including another woman, were injured by alleged U.S. airstrikes which hit a home in Prolongación Soublette in Catia La Mar, Caracas, Venezuela around 2 a.m. on January 3, 2026. The airstrikes reportedly occurred during U.S. operations to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

The New York Times reported that a U.S. airstrike hit a three-story residential apartment building, which knocked out an exterior wall and killed between 78 and 80-year-old Rosa Gonzalez, wounding Ms. Gonzalez’s nephew Wilman González as well as seriously injuring another woman. Wilman, who is now without a home and many of his valuables, spoke to The New York Times and said that he ducked when he heard the strike at around 2 a.m. but sustained an injury to his face which required three stitches. Wilmar is pictured carrying the few possessions he managed to salvage from the wreckage, while the destroyed home can be seen in the background. A 70-year-old resident named Jorge also said that he lost “everything” in the airstrike.

According to El Pitazo, neighbors described Ms. Gonzalez as a hardworking woman and a community member, noting that she had lived more than half her life in the building she was killed in.

Residents told The New York Times that four men had tried to rescue Ms. Gonzalez after the strike, taking her by motorbike to the hospital, but she was dead before she arrived. Another witness who lost his home in the attack told El Pitazo that “Mrs. Rosa hadn’t come out. We went to help her. She was injured, but she told us to help her get out, that she would get better. That wasn’t the case. We took her straight to the small hospital [Dr. Alfredo Machado Hospital, located in the same area], but she didn’t make it and died there.”

Images show the dining area inside of a residence which sustained severe damage and is missing an exterior wall. Additional images posted by @matiasdelacroix on Instagram for @apnews show residents inspecting the damage to the home and sorting through the debris left behind while a video by @vargas.reporta shows a panoramic view of the damage to the residences while still dark, likely right after the strike.

Expansion News identified the location of the strike as “in block 12 on Prolongación Soublette in Catia La Mar” and pointed out that attacks had also occurred adjacent on the “Mamo Plateau, at the Venezuelan Navy’s military installations”. Neighbor Jonathan Mayora told La Hora de Venezuela that “In the early morning, we heard the detonations, and the entire building shook with the explosions. We are separated from the Mamo Plateau (where the Marine Corps base is located, which was also bombed) by a mountain, and that’s why we decided to evacuate the building. Most people had already left when the missile that hit the building exploded.”

Bellingcat published an investigation on January 7th which identified remnants of an AGM-88 series missile, a US-made air-to-surface munition, inside the apartment complex where Ms. Gonzalez was killed. Experts that spoke to Bellingcat stated that Venezuela does not operate AGM-88 missiles and has not been reported to have received any in arms transfers, while US Navy aircraft have been photographed in the region with AGM-88 missiles in the weeks prior to the operation. The Bellingcat investigation also noted that based on satellite imagery, “Buk-M2E launchers appear to have been stored at the military base approximately 500m from the residential building that was hit”.

Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the airstrikes to the U.S. military. Bellingcat reached out to the US Department of Defense (DoD) to ask if “any weapons used in the operation transmitted a weapons impact assessment or other data that indicated they hit an unintended or civilian location” and the DoD responded that a Battle Damage assessment was ongoing.